Google Home's interchangeable bases now available at the Google Store

One of the things that separates Google Home from its competition is the ability to swap out the base for another color or material. Google told us about them during the unveiling at Google I/O 2016, but we haven't seen them available until today.

For $20, you can get fabric bases in mango, marine or violet (orange, blue or purple if you're not up on the latest). For $40, you can get a metal base in carbon, copper or snow. Shipping is free on all orders.

Maybe, tho it might make it less of an impulse buy and they can't very well do that at retail locations... Might compromise the packaging too (shipping wise), tho that plastic peg that holds it by the charging port was a clever way to hold it safely in the box.

That'd be better, but it'd still be more complicated than how they're doing it now. And when it comes to shipping units to brick and mortar, having them SKU'd like that means twice as much cardboard for boxed, packing material, etc to ship. What if a store had the core unit, but none of the bases?

On top of that, Home is supposed to be this easy thing to get set up. Having to buy the core and the base separately would make the system more complex than it needs to be. Plus, you'd have people complain about needing to buy a base and core separately like people do with buying a Surface Pro and a keyboard separately.

Very true. Reinforcing your point, they only sell black Chromecasts in stores, and you have to go online to get Coral or Lemon.

I probably won't bother buying a different base. It'll end up costing $30 in Canada, and I don't like having an extra piece laying around that I can't use for anything. I've got more than enough extra bits and pieces of things packed away in my storage room.

Yeah it'd been much nicer if they let us pick when purchasing home, oh well... Might still grab that mango one in fabric, way too much grey in my room already, would've liked the metal one in copper but $40 seems rather overpriced for a metal grill!

Btw, for anyone that hasn't seen it in person or haven't checked out disassembled pics, the fabric grill bottom still has a pretty sturdy plastic frame (along with the two little magnets that hold it firmly in place)... There's no danger of say, a kid grabbing it and piercing a woofer thru the grill with his mits.

That was my only real worry about the cloth before seeing it in person... I guess it probably gathers more dust too but might also be more transparent sound-wise, not that I'd use the Home itself for music playback (got way too many decent speakers!).

Wanted to buy the metal one but $40 is kind of a rip off. Think for now I'll just keep the ones that come with and see later. May be some third party accessory makers will come up with cheaper and broader selection of bases.

Can someone help with providing a 3D structure (of the metal one, of course, including holes) so, others can start printing pre painted ones or plain ones that can be spray painted (by yourself)
I would be willing to spend 40$, if it comes with at least 8hr worth battery pack.
Waiting for after market bases.